The present invention relates to a method for installing an application in a security element of a portable end device, to a corresponding installation device, to a corresponding security element, and to a system comprising at least one installation device and at least one end device having at least one security element.
The functionality of portable end devices, such as for example mobile radio end devices, smartphones, tablets and the like, can be extended in the known manner by the installation of software functionalities, so-called applets or “apps”. Various of these applets serve applications that also comprise and/or process security-relevant data. Security-relevant data can be for example confidential personal data of a user of the end device, such as for example biometric data, or data that are employed for performing financial transactions, such as for example credit card number, account data, content of electronic purses, cryptographic keys, etc.
It is known to protect applications, in particular those that process security-relevant data, from tampering and unauthorized access by said applications being stored or installed and executed in a specially secured region of the end device.
Suitable secure regions are in particular security elements that are integratable into an end device or firmly incorporated therein. Removably integratable security elements are for example SIM/UICC mobile radio cards, secure multimedia cards, or the like. As security elements firmly incorporated into the end device there can be used for example embedded SIM/UICC mobile radio cards, TPMs (“Trusted Platform Modules”) or NFC modules. Finally, security elements that can also be used are secure runtime environments within a specific hardware architecture of the end device, for example within an ARM TrustZone architecture, such as for example a Trusted Execution Environment according to the Global Platform specification.
It is to be noted that a security element of the above-described kind can comprise a plurality of secure regions. That is to say, for example a SIM card as a physical security element can comprise a plurality of secure regions in a memory of the card. In particular, said secure regions can be present as so-called Security Domains according to the Global Platform specification (cf. e.g. Global Platform, Card Specification, Version 2.2). Such a Security Domain is normally associated with a pre-specified external entity, for example the issuer of the data carrier, a network operator, an application provider, or the like. Said entity will then also be designated hereinafter the “owner” of the Security Domain. Analogously, an “owner” of a security element will also be spoken hereinafter when designating that entity with which the security element is associated. The owner of the security element is in particular responsible for the key architecture of the security element. Security Domains can be present on a physical security element in a hierarchically disposed manner, with an owner of a privileged Security Domain being able to create further, hierarchically dependent Security Domains for possible other owners, along with the appurtenant key architecture.
The installing of applications in a security element is normally secured cryptographically. Increasingly, such an installation particularly of security-relevant applications in a security element of a portable end device is carried out using trustworthy installation devices, so-called trusted service managers (hereinafter designated TSMs). Such a device, as a service provider, accepts the application to be installed and carries out the installation process, i.e. the secure installing of the application in the security element, autonomously. Hereinafter the formulation that the TSM “manages” the security element will be used in this connection. Before the installing step, cryptographic keys are normally exchanged between the TSM and the institution supplying the application, for example a bank in the case of a payment application to be personalized, and incorporated into the security element in a secure manner. By means of said keys the installation process can be secured cryptographically.
In practice, the described procedure and the described system have partly turned out to be disadvantageous. This is firstly due to the fact that a multiplicity of installation devices, in particular TSMs, have appeared on the market. It is hence becoming increasingly difficult for an application provider to ascertain that TSM that is managing a pre-specified security element in a particular case. Further, installation jobs increasingly fail because different manufacturers and/or issuers of security elements partly provide proprietary communication protocols for communication with the corresponding security elements, which are then unknown to individual installation devices. Finally, the conventional system is rigid and does not allow security elements to influence the installation process.